Plunger device for train-stopping apparatus.



J. F. WEBBJR. PLUNGER DEVICE FORTRAIN STOPPING APPARATUS,

APPLICATlON FILED APR. h 1916- I Patented Sept. 26,1916.

WITNESSES:

UNITED s ATEs PATENT OFFICE.

I. WEBB, JR., 012 NEW YORK, N. Y., A SSIG-NOIIR, TO THE INTERNATIONAL SIGNAL I 00., INCORPORATED, OF NEW YORK, N. Y. PLUNGERDEVICE FOR TRAIN-STOPPING- APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JEAN F. WEBB, Jr., residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Plunger Devices for Train-Stopping Apparatus, of which the following is a speclfication.

My present invention is an improved plunger device especially designed and adapted for use in connection with such train stopping apparatus as, for instance, are disclosed in the patent to Jean F. Webb, Jr., issued January 19, 1915, 1,125,418, the

patent issued to Jean F. Web J r2, #l,l25,-

4:19, January 19, 1915 and the patent issued to Jean F. Webb, Sr. and Jean F. Webb, Jr., February 8, 1816, #1,170,789. In train stopping mechanism of these general types a reciprocating plunger is provided for actuating the valves or other mechanisms that release the air to set the brakes and bring the train to a stop when the plunger is engaged, under certainconditions, by the track ramp or other similar plungerraising 1 device.

" aforesaid patents but may be employed in connection with other train stopping mechanism in which a reciprocating part is employed for setting or operating purposes and in the present application I make no claim to the construction of the mechamsm per se, operated by the reciprocations of the lunger as such mechanismsform the. subpct-matter of the patents aforesaid.

f"; The present invention especially has its object to way'that upon breakage of the plunger device, the air will be released to rovide a plunger device in- 'fwhich rovislon made for self-protectlon I in suc Specification of Letters Patent- Patented Sept. 26, 1916.

Application fl1ed,Apri11,1916. Serial No. 88,295. i

which can bemade of hard material, such as steel," and the other rial, such as gray cast iron, or the like, the softer part being constructed with a weakened. area that is designed to have suificient strength, under all normal conditions, to resist breakage but in which when arelatively fixed obstruction is met, th between wh1ch and the plunger device is ape force of impact plied substantially normal to the reciprocatory arms of the lunger, the breakage will occur always at t e samelocation namely,

the weakened area, so that-in order to repair the plunger it is only necessary to remove a portlon of the .same, the construction being 'such that the removal, of the broken part can be effected withoutdistnrbing the location of the plunger pro er or any connections between it and te train stopping mechanism.

v. In its more detail nature, the invention includes certain nogqll features ofconstruction, combination an'd arrangement of parts,

all of which will be first fully described,

then be specificall ointed out in the appended claims, anci iiiustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which I Figure 1 is a central vertical longitudinal,

section illustrating the invention in the normal position of the parts. Fig. 2 is a cro section on the line 2+2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 31,

part of soften mater 55 is a plan view on the line 33 of Fig. 12 35 the nipple being removed.

In the drawing, in which like letters and: I

numerals of reference indicate like parts in all ofthe figures, 1 represents the relativel;

fixed support which has a guideway 2 bored at 3 to receive the c lindrical plunger 10, the plunger 10 inclu ing the stem 8 which projects upwardly through the guideway 2 andhas flat sides 9 to engage the flat portion 7 of the bore of the cap 4, the cap 4 being 5 provided with ears 5 through which cap screws 6 are passed to secure the cap 4 to the'support 1. Byreason of the flat faces 7 and-9, a turning of the plunger in the I" guideway 2 1s prevented.

act upon the brakes (through connection with the train pipe or with any other mechanism'by which -the release may be accomplis'hed) and the brakes set until the damaged part can be repaired,

' In'the-present invention provision is made fbr reducing the expense of manufacture to v the minimum'b reason of thefact'that the whose heads 15 are held horn turning by 105 v plunger is ma e in two parts, onepart ofigngaging the flat sides 9 of the stem 8 of below the guide 2 and extends into the guide f 50 2 under all conditions The plunger is The plunger end 10 preferably projects bored at 13 for the passage of the bolts 14; a

its

the plunger and the bolts are held down by a Washer lliagainst which the buffer spring 17 presses, the springs 17 being located in the guide 2 around the stem 8 and also engaging the cap 4.

27 is a collar secured on the'upper end of the stem 8 to limit the downward move ment of the same and 26 is the nipple by means of which theair connection. with the air brake system is had to lead air under train pipe pressure into the bore 11 of the plunger proper. i

The plunger proper is provided with a ground seat 12 into which the groundnipple 19 of the shoe body portion 18 fits, the shoe body portion 18 being, as it.were, a con- 'tinuation of the plunger proper '10 and is secured'to the. same by" the bolts 1e which passthrough the bores 20 of the body portion'18, nuts 21'and pins 22 being provided ever, is so designed it a relatively fixed construction B is encountered, the impacting stresses resulting being applied in a relatively normal direction to theaxes of reciprocation of the plunger, the neck 24: iill break, thus releasing the train pipe air through the passage 11 to the blind bore 25 (which is opened by the breakage) and setting the brakes on the train or operating the brake setting mechanism that may be provided for the purpose. u Common strains are applied by contact with the ramp A and do not affect the struc- 'ture of the neck 24..

-By making the plunger of two parts one Tot whiclr is readily removed from the plunger proper, it will be seen that in order to repair the breakage, it will only be neces sary for the engineer to unscrew the nuts 21,

the bolts 14 being held from turning and from longitudinal movement by the heads 15 engaging the fiat faces 9 ,and belng pressed by the'spring pressed Washer 16.

Having removed the nuts 21, the body 18 of the shoe can be drawn outand removed and a new shoe can be quickly substituted for the same. f A

As the plunger usually requires accurate machining to operate properly in the guide 2 and under practical conditions, were it made in one piece and of the same hardness,

a breakage would likely occur at almost "any location, which wouldmake it an expensi e matter to remove the entire plunger from. the'apparatus for purposes of repair.

I am aware that heretofore pivoted con tact arms have been provided with air passages designed to release train pipe air when the parts become worn or broken in use, but in the construction referred to (see patcut to Phillip #827,940, issued Augl 'l', 1906) in order to replace the broken member F of such patent, it is necessary to remove'the entire structure from the apparatus and replace the entire member. This is a long and tedious operation, and furthermore breakage of the member F is liableto occur at any part of the device, no provision being made for compelling the breakage to occur always at the same location, .as in in y invention. I an also aware that heretofore a reciprocating plunger device has been-provided with a fragile capsule dcsigncd'to-be broken each time, the same encounters an obstruction. This, however, is an objectionable feature, for the reason that it requires the engineer to replace the destructive cap every time a track obstacle is encountered,

and such device could not be eniployed in' traiir stopping apparatus ofthe type dis- -closed -in my formerpatents referred to, as

the delicate capsule (usually made of glass ,or very thin metal) is not susceptible of withstanding strains and stresses of an ohstruction in any direction and would be substantially inoperative if made strong enough to withstand the pressures requiredto raise the plunger if used in connection with my train stopping apparatus or othersv of the same type above referred to. The destructible capsule idea is disclosed, for example, in the patent to Barbarie #825,289, issued 1' July 10,1906. My invention, however, dift'ers from the devices of the Phillip and Darbarie patents in that the parts aredesigned not to break under all ordinary conditions met within practice and be of such strength as to withstand the normalstresses and strains to raise the plunger against the action of the strong bulfer spring to operate the mechanism with which the plunger, in practice. is usually connected, and so designed, however, as to compel breakage to occur always at one location in the removable part when abnormal strains'in a. direc tion normal to the axis of reciprocation are encountered. i I

' Having thusdescribed my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. A plunger device for train stopping apparatus comprising a relativelyfiiged sup- .port having'a guideway, a plunger reciprocable in saidguidew'ay, means for depress ing said plunger, a shoe on the'bottom of said .plangerysaid shoe having a, weakened neck, said shoe'having a blind bore and said.

porting guideway, a plunger reciproc'able I in the same, said plunger having a bore through the same; a shoe comprising a foot portion, a body portion and a neck, said shoe having a blind bore extending through the-body portion and the neck, and devices for detachably securing the body portion of the shoe to the plunger with the bores in register. 7

3. A plunger device comprising a supporting guideway, a plunger reciprocable in the same, said plunger having a bore through the same; a shoe comprising a foot portion, a body portion and a neck, said shoe having a blind bore extending through the body portion and the neck, devices for detachably securing the body portion of the shoe to the plunger with the bores in register, meansffor continuously applying pressure to sald plunger 1n one direction,

said plunger adapted to yield when otherpressure is applied to the shoe in the opposite direction, said neck being adapted to resist normal diagonal strains in passing over track ramps and obstructions but designed to break when a fixed obstruction is encountered, the contact stresses of which are substantially normal to the axis of reciprocation of the plunger.

4. In a plunger device, a rigid support having a guideway, a plunger comprising-a body bar longitudinally reciprocable in said guidew'ay, a spring for holding said plunger bar down and a separate shoe extension member detachably secured to said plunger bar whereby the same may be removed and replaced at will without disturbing the position of the plunger bar in said gu-ideway.

5. In a plunger device, a rigid support having a guidcway, a plunger comprising a body bar longitudinally reciprocable in said guideway, a spring for holding said plunger bar down and a separate shoe extension member detachably secured to said plunger bar whereby the same may be removed and replaced at will without disturbing the positionof the plunger bar in said guideway, said plunger bar and said shoe extension having a blind bore connectible to the train pipe of an air brake system.

6. In a plunger device, a rigid support having a guideway', a plunger comprising a body bar longitudinally reciprocable in said guideway, a spring for holding said plunger bar down and a separate shoe ex-- tension member detachably secured to said plunger whereby the same may be removed and replaced at will without disturbing the position of the plungerbar in said guideway, said plunger bar and said shoe extension having a blind bore connectible to the train pipe of an air brake system, and said shoe extension having a foot, a body part and. a connecting neck between said parts, said shoe parts being constructed to withstand stresses in the direction of-the length of the plunger bar, and'diagonally thereto, said neck being constructed to break when abnormal strains only are applied in a direction substantially normal to the direction of reciprocation of the plunger.

7. A plunger device which comprises a relatively fixed support having a guideway, a plunger member reciprocable in sa1d guideway and-including a body portion and a stem, a spring in said guideway for forcing said plunger downwardly, means for limiting the downward movement of said plunger in said guideway to continuously cause said guideway to inelose said plunger forcing means, bolts carried by said plunger and projecting below the guideway, said plunger having a bar terminating in a seat, a shoe comprising a body portion having a nipple to lit in said seat and bore to receive said bolts, nuts on said bolts for securing said shoe body to said plunger member, said shoe including a neck pendent from said shoe body anda foot portion connected to said shoe body by said neck, said shoe having a blind bore registering with-the bore of said plunger member all being arranged substantially as shown. and for the purposes described.

Juan F. WEBB, in. 

